Wednesday, February 3, 2010

LEG. NEWS: Missouri autism insurance bills progress in General Assembly with amendments

On Wednesday, February 3, 2010 two autism insurance bills moved another step forward within the Missouri General Assembly, although both were subject to amendment reducing the amount of annual coverage, with the Senate bill allowing "foreign" health insurance carriers of certain named states to provide health insurance within Missouri with exemption from the mandate. Both bills retained previously included clauses on provision of applied behavior analysis within specified policies, and that BACB certified Board Certified Behavior Analysts were appropriate to supervise delivery of applied behavior analysis, and would meet approval as a provider under the bills. Some concern was voiced on the inability to include Mo Healthnet-Medicaid in the autism insurance legislation.

S.B. 618: Requires health carriers to provide coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders under certain conditions.
Deliberation on the Senate floor took two days. A Senate Substitute was offered, amended several times and passed, adopted and perfected as SS/SB 618. The most significant change is that the cap amount has been reduced.

H.B. 1311: Requires health carriers issuing or renewing a health benefit plan to provide coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders
 The progress of HB 1311 was delayed relative to SB 618 SS/SB 618.  It has been reported that H.1311 passed with amendment in an Executive Session of the Special Standing Committee on Insurance today. The legislative website shows that H.B 1311 and H.B. 1341, another autism insurance bill, were referred to Rules - Pursuant to Rule 25(32)(f) (H) , with H.B. 1311 accepted as a substitute for H.B 1341.
At the time of this post no summary copy of the amended H.B. 1311 is available, but media reports state that amendments to H.B. 1311 have substantially reduced the annual coverage requested in the original bill and use a tiered diffential coverage for children <10 years, and 10-21 years. No report was made of whether the BCBA supervisor clause has been changed. H.B. 1311 may come to the floor of the Missouri House for debate as early as next week.

For specfic details and most accurate information on the content of this legislation as it progresses through the Missouri Assembly, the reader is referred to the Missouri General Assembly.

------------------
For more information/Media reports

Autism Votes - Missouri

Missouri General Assembly

Legislators narrow gap on autism bills
Virginia Young
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
02/04/2010

This story has .mp3 files of the Senate deliberation
Senate near passage of autism bill
by Bob Priddy on February 3, 2010

Mo. Senate passes child autism coverage bill
By: The Associated Press | 03 Feb 2010 | 04:46 PM ET

House committee passes autism insurance bill
By Chad Livengood • clivengood@news-leader.com
Inside Missouri Politics Blog
February 3, 2010

Previous post:
Friday, January 29, 2010
LEG. NEWS: Missouri SB 618 autism insurance bill goes to Senate floor on February 1, 2010 for "Perfection"
-----------
-----------
Views and news expressed in this blog or by the PIBA SIG are those of the SIG or SIG members and do not represent official policy of ABA International or other official body. For official policy of the Association of Behavior Analysis International, the reader is directed to their website, http://www.abainternational.org
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , ,